Flying Doctors

New Zealand hospitals and medical clinics are attracting American doctors hoping to find “adventure, fulfillment” and a change. Kathryn T. Starkey, MD, a gynecologist in a two-physician practice in Auburn, N.Y., liked providing medical care but didn’t want to see more patients in less time. She wanted to eat lunch at a table rather than in her car while driving to the hospital, if she ate at all. “Something had to give. I wanted to try something else, and I was willing to be far away from home.” About 9,000 miles from home, as it turned out,  in New Zealand. “It’s different than just traveling to a country for a week or two. You really change the way you live,” said Bruce M. Lovelace IV, MD, a psychiatrist in Portsmouth, Va. “There’s a lot of things you need to get used to, but it’s a lot of fun.” Lovelace completed a one-year position in Wellington arranged with Global Medical Staffing in Murray, Utah.